A typical infant car seat is secured to a vehicle such as an automobile with the automobile seat belt. Under standard procedure, the automobile seat belt passes through two opposed openings in the side rails of the infant car seat and behind the rear of the seating surface of the seat. In the usual construction of these seats, the two openings are not connected and offer no support or "path" for the automobile seat belt as it passes from one opening to the other opening.
The normal procedure for installing the automobile seat belt behind the seating surface of the infant car seat and through the two openings is difficult. The retractor of the automobile seat belt puts tension on the belt while it is being threaded through the openings. In addition, the path through the infant car seat is relatively inaccessible and usually does not include a supporting surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,086 issued Feb. 15, 1994, to Gunji provides one solution to the problems discussed above in that he provides seat belt holes in the sides of a lower rear part of the child seat unit through which seat belts are placed to allow the auxiliary child seat unit to be stably fastened to an interior of the vehicle. A seat belt connection opening is provided within the auxiliary child seat unit between the seat belt holes wherein the seat belts are attached by an engagement mechanism provided on the seat belts. Since Gunji uses a substantial opening in the back of the seat, he must provide some covering so that the child will not be uncomfortable and, further, so that the child will not have access to the belt itself. Accordingly, he covers this opening with a cover plate which is rotatably attached to the back of the seat above the opening by means such as hinges or the like so that the cover plate is rotated to the position which covers the seat belt connection opening, or uncovers it while the seat belt is being used. With this type of structure, Gunji necessarily must provide any cushioning material with a flap which also is substantially the size of the hinged plate.
The present invention avoids the use of hinges on a plate and the necessity of a large flap in the cushion covering so as to reduce the complexity of connecting the infant seat to the vehicle and, at the same time, provides a seat which avoids the unnecessary costs of the additional hinges and other hardware.